Pulse of a Nation: Going back to the roots

The rich history of football in South Africa, and in particular the role it played in the lives of the enslaved black population, marked a reverting first episode of SuperSport’s “Pulse of a Nation”, shown for the first time on Sunday and available on DSTv Stream.

The much-anticipated four-part production weaves the history of football and its role in society into the wider narrative of the creation of the Premier Soccer League and SuperSport’s role in taking the game to new heights when it signed a billion Rand rights deal with the clubs in 2007.

As all good production do, it started at the beginning, telling the tale of the game in the Apartheid era where the sport of Association Football was an outlet for the downtrodden people, not only as a means of entertainment but also achievement and self realisation, as former Bafana Bafana coach Ephraim Mashaba put it.

Rare old footage showed yesterday’s heroes at their flair-filled best, dribbling and doing tricks to the joy of the crowd while the greats of the day explained the significance of the game on the people, who lived under the yoke of repressive rules only because of the colour of their skin.

Teko Modise, now an analyst on SuperSport, said it best when he called football “the people’s relief” while veteran journalist Thomas Kwenaite said, “the players knew they had to entertain us so that we could forget about the harshness we had to ensure during the week”.

The history of the game in the country goes back more than 150 years but the genesis of the modern game was to be found in Soweto and the establishment of the township on the fringes of the gold mining city of Johannesburg and then the introduction of the game through boys clubs.

The role of James Mpanza and others in helping the township kids play the game explains the rich history of first Orlando Pirates and Moroka Swallows and then their later rivals Kaizer Chiefs, who were formed much later.

'THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN'

The original Soweto derby was the Buccaneers against the Birds and the Orlando Stadium the spiritual home of the game

“Pulse of Nation”, however did not only focus on the great men of the game but also a special group of ladies called the ‘Magnificient Seven’, formed at the house of Maggie Setlegelo and who would raise money to help pay the players. They were also special supporters with an unrivalled passion. Even when the Orlando Stadium was packed and noisy, Mashaba said their voices could be heard.

The foundation of Kaizer Chiefs in 1970 was also told in much depth, offering a fresh perspective on the split from Pirates and the role of the mythical Ewert ‘The Lip’ Nene in establishing AmaKhosi. Players were expelled from the club and went onto create a new club that today is the most popular in the land.

Footage of Kaizer Motaung playing in the North American Soccer League, shown to South African audiences for the first time, emphasises the impact he and other South African players, like Pule ‘Ace’ Ntsoelengoe, had far away from their homeland.

Motaung’s place in society as a role model, trend setter and ground breaker was highlighted but juxta positioned with the devastating story of the killing of Nene in KwaThema when he went to recruit Nelson ‘Teenage’ Dladla for Chiefs.

The narrative is eloquently and dramatically delivered by Sello Maake kaNcube , using several south African languages to tell the story.

The next episode will be broadcast on Sunday and tells of how professional football not only broke down apartheid barriers but also led to greed-filled conflict.

WHAT’S NEXT THIS SUNDAY…

EPISODE TWO: We move into the golden age of South African football as the 1970s becomes the 1980s, and discover how football achieved unity and went on to thrive under a united banner. Outrageous characters, audacious skills and stadiums that were crammed to capacity were the order of the day - despite ominous clouds of corruption and greed. We also tell the story of how football had to adapt to the era of democracy, and one man’s dream for a beloved team to become the Champions of Africa.